With an eye toward a circular economy, technology developers are advancing a host of new approaches to chemical recycling of post-use commodity plastics Plastics are indispensable parts of almost every sector of the economy, with wide-ranging economic, environmental and convenience…
A unified gateway station and related components increase availability to improve operations and safety In information technology (IT) security circles, the most important acronym is CIA: confidentiality, integrity, availability. In industrial control security, the corresponding acronym is AIC: availability, integrity,…
A safety instrumented system (SIS) is important to ensure the safe operation of a plant. The SIS requires up-to-date sensors — recent developments in vortex flowmeters are presented here There are four key areas of concern for chemical producers that…
Last month, almost 30 global companies announced the formation of an alliance to address the impact that plastic waste is having on our environment, with particular focus on our oceans. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW; www.endplasticwaste.org) has committed…
Using the hierarchy of controls can help guide housekeeping and safety programs to better protect employees and facilities There is a close link between safety and housekeeping for all manufacturers, but facilities that store, handle or process chemicals have an…
The following is a list of recently published books of relevance for chemical process industries (CPI) professionals Picturing Science and Engineering: A guide to making scientific photographs for presentations, journal submissions and covers. By Felice C. Frankel, MIT Press,…
As renewable energy becomes increasingly available (and less expensive), Europeans are looking to Power-to-X as a way to couple the energy, CPI and transportation sectors Germany’s energy transition (Energiewende) from fossil-based fuels to renewables, such as solar and wind, is…
Surprising observations regarding flooding in the upper fractionation trays of an atmospheric crude-petroleum distillation column are investigated In industial distillation processes, flooding is an abnormal, but relatively common, process condition in which liquid accumulates in the column. The accumulation may…
With the onset of new environmental regulations, turnaround teams must look to temporary vapor-control strategies to ensure compliance during non-routine operations Turnarounds are one of the most anticipated and time-intensive events in a plant’s cycle, and are an essential part…
Users of compressed air can take advantage of heat recovery to enhance their sustainability, improve energy efficiency and reduce system lifecycle costs Air compressors account for a considerable portion of industrial energy consumption, and facilities that employ large-scale air compression…